The Back Pain Podcast Back Pain and Cycling - Is it normal? How Can I Prevent it?
Discover today how your back pain when cycling can be eliminated with a simple bike fit. Today we are joined by Ricky Davis, chiropractor and bike fitter who explains the critical importance bike fitting can have on your comfort and performance on the bike whether you're a lifelong cyclist or just starting out. Ricky shares some key exercises for improving your strength in and out the saddle and why getting that fine balance is extremely important.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- There’s a 50/50 split for acute trauma injuries on a bike e.g. falling off and fracturing something, and then the chronic overuse and pain.
- Disc overload or disk anti-pressure can often cause the sciatic nerve troubles close to that area and they can refer down and into the legs. Not only is there mechanical pressure in the saddle but also the lower back, making many people fear cycling.
- There are specific stretches and techniques for cycling and mobility. Certain yoga poses such as ‘Pigeon Pose’ whereby you stretch through your hips. As well as strengthening exercises like ‘Dead Bugs’ which are an amazing core exercise whilst in a peddling movement, coupled with one-legged glute exercises.
- The majority of the issues related to lower bike pain in connection with bike fitting is that somebody can be too low in terms of the front end of the bike meaning they’re putting excess stress onto the lower part of the back or they are too high on a road bike you have to have a balance between the two.
- If you are first getting into cycling, getting a bike fitted correctly to you will change your view on cycling. If you go cycling without this, and find it painful it will put you off. Pain is the biggest limiter of success on a bike as you are not able to do what you love to do.
- You can increase performance with a good bike fit. The reason you will be faster and perform is that if your muscles are in the right ranges then all your power from your glutes will be going into the pedal. If everything is working as it should, we can improve on things.
BEST MOMENTS
“People think that’s just a normal feeling, that is just cycling but it is not, you don’t need to be feeling this stuff.”
“These are going to be invaluable to strengthen you off of the bike as well.”
“Discomfort will be the thing that limits you the most.”
VALUABLE RESOURCES
The Back Pain Podcast
Free Sciatica guide: www.thebackpainpodcast.com
John Thomson The McKenzie Institute website
Links To Exercises (valuable resources)
ABOUT THE HOSTS
Dave Elliot
Dave is the owner of Advanced Chiropractic, a chain of Chiropractic and massage therapy clinics in Essex, UK. Dave still sees patients during the week but has been working hard to talk to as many experts in the field of back pain as possible to help distil all the information and bring it to you in this awesome podcast. You can find Dave on any of the Advanced Chiropractic social media platforms, or you can contact him @ hello@thebackpainpodcast.com if you have any questions for him.
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Rob Beaven
Rob owns and runs a multidisciplinary clinic, The Dyer St Clinic in Cirencester Gloucestershire. His team of Chiropractors, Physiotherapists, Osteopaths, Doctors and podiatrists all collaborate on thousands of back pain patients every year. Alongside Dave, he has worked hard to bring to the table experts across all industries to give you the low down on back pain, with steps you can implement today to start feeling better.
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